Taking the Plunge – Kelsey Swails and Brian Lovering
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN STARRETT
Kelsey Swails and Brian Lovering looked forward to the biggest event in their lives and started planning their wedding a year before their big day. The couple went on their first date, the engagement party of one of Brian’s friends, in January 2014 and have been inseparable since.
Kelsey, who grew up in Marianna, Florida, describes herself as very organized and adventurous and believes in living life to the fullest. She loves to travel and loves the water. Her friends characterize her as very compassionate, with a great sense of humor and lots of perseverance. She and Brian, a Georgia native, are the perfect complements. Brian is quiet, calm, and hard-working, and his love for Kelsey is very evident in everything he does.
Brian proposed on May 10, 2019, at one of the couple’s favorite restaurants in the small fishing village of Apalachicola, Florida, in a perfect and romantic setting with old-Florida charm. After dinner, Brian asked the waiter to “take a picture” but had instructed him previously to capture the proposal on video. The groom-to-be got on one knee and caught Kelsey completely by surprise. “Brian promised a lifetime of laughter, adventures, traveling… and even promised to say ‘Go Gators!’ sometimes,” Kelsey says with a smile. As a graduate of the University of Florida, Kelsey is a die-hard Gators fan while Brian is a Florida State Seminoles fan, but, of course, Brian will always put Kelsey’s happiness first.
Plans for the wedding started immediately. “When we first got engaged, we had talked about having a small wedding, but as time went on and we discussed who we wanted to invite, our list got longer, and… once I tried on my wedding gown, I knew I wanted to walk down a church aisle,” Kelsey explains.
The wedding date was set for April the following year with a traditional ceremony at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Apalachicola and a planned reception and dinner to be held at the famous Owl Cafe. “I spent months washing and bleaching oysters to make the perfect wedding keepsakes for our guests. From the napkins to the bridal bouquets to the unique wedding guestbook and welcome bags, I tried to make everything special and personal to us as a couple,” the bride remembers.
“What could be more nontraditional and more beautiful than to take pictures underwater at my favorite place with my favorite person…”
But the perfectly matched couple could not have known that the entire world would come to a standstill in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe. All their wedding plans had to be thrown overboard just one month before their planned wedding day. “When news came about COVID-19, we had hoped the shutdown would not affect our wedding. But, it did,” Kelsey says. They also worried whether Brian, who works as a motorman for an offshore oil rig out of Houston, Texas, could be home. His schedule was completely changed during the COVID-19 outbreak, but luckily, he was able to come home a week before the wedding and the couple decided to make the best of things.
Kelsey reorganized the entire wedding in a whirlwind. “In a two- week period, I ordered a different, more suitable dress, found a new venue, obtained tables and recruited friends for the decorations, ordered food, ordered a new cake topper, and obtained bride-and- groom face masks,” the undeterred bride explains.
The new venue for her big day was now close to home and held a lot of meaning for the couple. Kelsey spent most of her summer days at Blue Springs Recreational Park, also known as Jackson Blue. It is a first-magnitude spring and discharges more than 60 million gallons of freshwater per day.
“I taught myself how to swim before I could even walk. At 2 years old, I was going off the high dive at the local pool by myself and I joined the swim team at 5 years old. My nickname growing up was ‘Little Fish.’ It is no surprise that the water is my happy place,” Kelsey says and explains that Brian also loves water—fishing, kayaking, etc. The couple spends most of their weekends at the beach, at the river, or at one of the freshwater springs. “Brian and I both have a love for the water and we kayak the Mill Pond often. The spring is the source of the Mill Pond. I love the ice-cold spring-fed water, the caves, and the animal life. To me, Merritt’s Mill Pond is the most beautiful place in the world and we Jackson Countians are very proud of it. We were very fortunate to have a friend, Jake Vickery, who lives on the Mill Pond and offered his boat dock for our wedding.”
With every single detail about the wedding changed, the event was still breathtakingly beautiful. Friends and family helped Kelsey decorate the dock with flowers—with most of the blossoms and greenery coming from their yards. String lights and tiki torches were put up to light the dock, and the handrails were adorned with flower arrangements made from magnolia blossoms, magnolia leaves, sago palms, and other greenery. Magnolia blossoms were also placed in the water to float.
“We had to practice social distancing during our wedding with a limited number of people on the dock with us,” Kelsey explains. She points out that most wedding guests could experience the ceremony online as one of her friends, Sarah Staley, had set up an online meeting for everyone to join. Family members from New York, New Mexico, South Florida, North Carolina, and Massachusetts, and even Kelsey’s grandmother, who is bedridden, could watch the ceremony from the comfort and safety of their homes. Kelsey’s brother Dylan, who lives with his wife in New York, had recruited a friend to be a stand-in for him at the wedding, contributing to a fun atmosphere by wearing a mask that showed Dylan’s face.
With only the couple, the minister, both sets of parents, the groom’s brother, and the friend of the bride’s brother in attendance, the ceremony was intimate but very heartfelt. Spectators had assembled on the water and could view the wedding by boat, kayak, or paddleboards from a distance.
The entire day was beautiful and left a deep impression with everyone in attendance, most definitively, the bride and groom. “We have overcome many obstacles that were not under our control throughout dating and engagement, and, not the least, the COVID-19 virus. We know we can face anything together.”
The idea for the beautiful underwater photography was born out of Kelsey and Brian’s love for the water.
Kelsey had previously taken underwater photos with the photographer, John Starrett. When the decision was made to get married at Merritt’s Mill Pond and everything became “nontraditional,” she knew she wanted nontraditional photos to match. “What could be more nontraditional and more beautiful than to take pictures underwater at my favorite place with my favorite person,” Kelsey concluded. When she called John Starrett, she found out that, while he has done many underwater shoots, this made for his first underwater wedding photoshoot.
The entire shoot took around 15 minutes according to the bride. “The hardest part is to look natural underwater; you want to make sure you aren’t blowing out bubbles and that your cheeks aren’t full of air,” she says. “The photographer would tell us how far out to swim, how deep to go underwater, and how to pose. It went by very quickly. However, it is very taxing on your body; your body is very tired afterwards. Not to mention, I had to be strategic in picking out clothing as it becomes very heavy underwater.”
The couple felt that the wedding was perfect, despite all the hurdles and last-minute changes. Looking back now, Kelsey reflects on the events with a light heart: “4.25.20. Our wedding date. I didn’t wear ‘the dress.’ He didn’t wear his tux. The ceremony wasn’t at our church and the reception was not at our venue. There was no bridal party. We didn’t have a first dance. Coronavirus changed it all. But… our day was perfect! It was special. It was magical. It was memorable… and everything in between. In a matter of two weeks, every single detail I had planned, and stressed over, and perfected over the year was changed. The majority of friends and family attended via Zoom. We do plan to still have our big celebration at a later date—probably on our one-year anniversary—but, for now, we are happy because we are married.”
For other couples who are planning their wedding, her advice is to make it unique and special to you and your spouse. “This is your day,” she reiterates. “You should have the wedding that the two of you want. Be present and enjoy it—the engagement, the planning, the big day, etc.—every step of the way. Hiccups and bumps are going to happen, but take it in stride and with grace. In the end, it is you and your husband and that is the most important thing.”
When asked about her plans for the future, she says, “Stay married, travel a lot, and laugh even more.” The couple has adopted a rescue dog, an English bulldog that they named Atticus (find him on Instagram: @ siratticus_thebully).
[box type=”info” align=”aligncenter” ]WEDDING PARENTS OF THE BRIDE
Nell and Richard Swails
PARENTS OF THE GROOM
Jane and Randy Lovering
BEST MAN
Brandon Lovering (brother) The bride’s brother,
Dylan Swails, lives in New York, so he and his wife, Heather Swails, were unable to attend. In his place, Dylan’s friend Jake Vickery held an enlarged face of Dylan so he could “be there in spirit.” Jake stood by the bride in Dylan’s honor.
GROOMSMAN
(in a kayak in the water) Jared Godwin
OFFICIANT
Chris Franklin (Kelsey’s high school Agriculture teacher and FFA advisor who is also a minister) With ongoing social distancing efforts, the wedding had to be kept to a minimum.
Not in attendance:
MAID OF HONOR
Kelli Chambliss (Kelli watched from Central Florida on the online conference video)
BRIDESMAIDS
Shayna Panza,
Chelle Baxley
(Chelle was on a pontoon boat in the water. Shayna watched from South Florida on the online conference video)[/box]